This disclosure relates to the field of penetrating one or several wellbore pipes or conduits (“tubulars”) for integrity testing, reservoir testing and the like. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a wellbore intervention tool that can penetrate through one or more tubulars disposed in a wellbore, enable performance of leakage and pressure testing, and wherein subsequent placement of sealants, inflow testing and the like can be performed.
In the hydrocarbon exploitation industry there is often a need for creating a liquid or gas communication passage through the wall of wellbore-emplaced tubulars such as a casing or a tubing. Also, penetration of wellbore-emplaced tubulars may be required to circulate fluids for cleaning the external surface of certain tubulars, followed by placing cement or other sealing material proximate the area of the penetration(s). Such penetration(s) may be in the form of one or more holes drilled through the tubular or created by detonation of an explosive shaped charge.
Penetrations through the wall of wellbore tubulars may also be used for testing for abnormal pressure buildup external to a wellbore tubular, for bleeding of any pressure built up, for injecting a sealant material, and the like. In addition, newly constructed and prior existing wellbores are frequently tested to check fluid inflow or fluid injection performance, where penetration(s) in wellbore tubulars can also be used for such operation.
Nested wellbore tubulars, such as a tubing disposed within a casing string, are normally not coaxially aligned in relation to each other in a wellbore. Typically, a wellbore tubular nested within another, larger internal diameter wellbore tubular will be in close proximity to the larger diameter tubular on one side of the wellbore. Therefore it is important for certain types of tubular penetration tools only the penetrate the tubular(s) required, and not to damage the larger diameter wellbore tubular in which the penetrated wellbore tubular is nested. Methods known in the art for penetrating a wellbore tubular based on detonating an explosive shaped charge or mechanically punching a hole in a tubular downhole lack the ability to accurately control penetration depth. Hence, such methods have a high risk of damaging the outer tubular.
In addition to above challenge with nested wellbore tubulars, where an annular space between nested wellbore tubulars is filled with cement and/or other barrier material to effect hydraulic isolation therein, the integrity of the cement between such tubulars may be questionable because of the uneven distribution of annular cross-sectional area. Uneven distribution of annular cross-sectional area may result in uneven cement velocity distribution during cement pumping, thus resulting in areas within the annular space that do not have sufficient cement to obtain useful hydraulic isolation.
Wellbore completions known in the art may have one or more relatively small diameter tubes mounted externally on a production or injection tubing. Such small diameter tubes may be used as conduits for electrical and/or fiber optic and/or hydraulic or pneumatic lines to enable, for example, control of downhole sensors, valves and related devices. Due to the likelihood of leakage of reservoir fluids or gas between, under or within such control lines, there may be a need to remove such small diameter tubes if a wellbore is to be abandoned with a tubing remaining in place.